What’s in a Name? Labeling the Mystic

“What is a mystic anyway, besides an eccentric weirdo who fits in nowhere and in no place, someone who is seen by most Christians as too esoteric for the faith, and by the New Age movement as a dinosaur of a bygone era–the age of Pieces, anyone?–best left buried?….”

What is a mystic anyway, besides an eccentric weirdo who fits in nowhere and in no place, someone who is seen by most Christians as too esoteric for the faith, and by the New Age movement as a dinosaur of a bygone era–the age of Pieces, anyone?–best left buried?

From my own experiences I am convinced if you have religion in you you are not a mystic. The very idea is an oxymoran. The proposition lacks mystical experience. Religions are man made, the mystic experience is not. The experience is not even acessible to humans on their own volition. Historically, it is imposed on some humans for reasons yet unknown; it is caught, not taught. Religions have nothing to do with it.

Mystics of the past had no choice but to belong to the cultural religion of their times or, as many did, face torture, death, mutilation, torture, life imprisonment , confiscation of written works, bullying and harrassment, even genocide, – all of which was extended to their partners, friends and followers. This even happens today, as you mention, Ron. But religions cannot win against the mounting evidence of the reality of mystic experience, as can be seen by the dimunition not to say extinction of religions today. Reality will out.